Gastrointestinal health is a major concern of consumers, driving demand for products that can be consumed on a daily basis to improve gastrointestinal health. One example of consumables that may improve gastrointestinal health is a class of compounds known in the art as prebiotics. Typically, prebiotics are non-digestible polysaccharides such as fructans and fructo-oligosaccharides. Prebiotics are typically administered as food components and have a beneficial health effect through their selective metabolism in the intestinal tract. Prebiotics commonly target intestinal bacteria such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli, stimulating their growth and activity and improving intestinal health through the production of short chain fatty acids and antimicrobial compounds that target pathogens. While prebiotic food stuffs are useful in improving gastrointestinal health, the requirement that they be consumed orally is a limitation. Therefore, there remains a need for alternate forms of administration of prebiotics.
Tissue manufactures have employed polysaccharides in the manufacture of creped tissue products with some success. The polysaccharides however, have generally been limited to digestible polysaccharides such as modified and unmodified starches. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,207,734 describes the use of a cationic modified starch as a creping adhesive. Typically these adhesives are added along with release or modifying agents, such as polyvinyl alcohol and a cationic polyamide-epihalohydrin resin. Generally these compositions are added at relatively modest amounts, such as less than about 100 milligrams of creping composition per square meter dryer surface area. These low add-on levels ensure proper adhesion and release without stiffening the web or compromising other important sheet properties.
While prior art creping compositions comprising starches have been successful in balancing sheet properties and creping performance, they are limited in regards to the types of polysaccharides which may be employed and do not include prebiotics, which unlike starches, are non-digestible polysaccharides. Moreover, prior art creping compositions have generally been added in limited amounts, typically far less than the amount necessary to provide any health benefit to a consumer. Therefore there remains a need in the art for a creping composition and more specifically a prebiotic creping composition that not only successfully balances sheet properties and creping performance, but may also be added to the tissue web in a sufficient amount so as to provide a prebiotic effect.